BlackRock to buy $80 million Twitter stake: source

SAN FRANCISCO Jan 25 BlackRock, the world's
largest asset management company, has taken an $80 million stake
in Twitter Inc, a person with knowledge of the deal said Friday.

The six-year old social media company will not raise new
capital as part of the private deal that values the firm at more
than $9 billion. BlackRock will buy shares directly from early
Twitter employees seeking to liquidate their stock holdings and
options.

Twitter's new valuation represents a slight rise from late
2011, when the company facilitated a similar tender offer with
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia that valued the
company at a reported $8.4 billion.

Twitter sought investors for another tender offer last
summer in the wake of Facebook Inc's botched initial
public offering in May, but did not complete the deal until
recently, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

In recent years other tech companies including Facebook,
Groupon Inc and SurveyMonkey have used similar
transactions to cash out existing employees and delay an initial
public offering. Twitter itself is rumored to be a potential IPO
prospect within two years.

Several hundred Twitter employees, including many who joined
the company before 2009, will be eligible to sell their shares
as part of the transaction.

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